Gene Ligotti was educated at Adelphi University and received his doctorate at New York University. Due to suff ering with severe Rheumatoid Arthritis, he had to give up his successful thirty year practice of dentistry in Huntington, NY. He began writing as merely something to do, but it soon became a driving force. As a freelance writer he wrote a monthly column about the history of the villages in the Catskill Mountains and of the romantic Hudson River. His acclaimed articles on dentistry have been printed in various dental journals. Ligotti lives in Smithtown, New York, with his wife, Corbina, where they can be close to their daughters, Gina and Lisa and their grandchildren; grandson, Gino and twin granddaughters, Gabrielle and Juliette.